04/13/2025
TAKING IT TO THE BOX!
All the time I hear from criminal defendants, “I’m taking this one to the box!”
Now, sometimes that happens where you can’t resolve a case and you go to trial. More often than not, probably high ninetieth percentile, cases settle. What I always get a kick out of is how cavalier defendants are about going to trial. This office is currently preparing to start a jury trial in a criminal case this Thursday. I can promise you that between attorney and staff time, just in the week preceding trial, we will spend upwards of fifty hours preparing.
There is Voir Dire, which are questions to ask prospective jurors to try to determine if they would be good to have on your case. There are Motions in Limine, which seek to prevent the admission of certain evidence, for example: A prior conviction. Then there will be a hearing on your various MIL’s, then of course there is the jury selection process which entails much work to be prepared. When the pretrial stuff is over and the trial actually commences, the attorneys make opening statements which give the jurors a road map to the case and what the attorney thinks the evidence will show.
Do you think you need to prepare much for that?
After opening statements, there is testimony from witnesses. Oh yeah, you need to prepare your witnesses for giving their testimony. Of course, to have a witness, you need to subpoena them, so there is plenty of document preparation to do for each one, and literally serving them in person.
There are exhibits to prepare and at some point, after a day, or a week, or a month, there are closing arguments to make.
What did the evidence show? That is a brief recap of the case to persuade the jurors to find your client not guilty.
That’s just a little insight on what it takes to go to trial. So, you want to take it to the box?
Accused of a crime? Call Edward Savin at (707) 528-3456.